Page 76 of Mended Hearts

She exhaled, eyes brighter now, the pink high on her cheeks finally somethingearned, not somethingshamed.

I stood, my legs thanking me for returning the circulation as I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “You can do this dance blindfolded, sweet pea. Go show them what you got.”

“Go, Mattie!” Beau hollered from Alice’s hip.

And just like that, she smiled.

Oliver

“You keep tryingto spin this like you’re somehow a victim, but the only person hurting right now is Matilda. As far as I’m concerned, my brother should’ve filed a protection order years ago.”

I might’ve spent the last three months mad at the man, but goddamn, did Greyson keep a poker face well. From a distance, you’d have no idea he was plotting how to destroy the nightmare I’d saddled us with because a grieving twenty-one-year-old me couldn’t keep his dick in his pants once the alcohol came out.

“What was the point in coming tonight, huh?” I pressed. “Did you literally just show up to shit on her parade?”

“How dare you,” she gasped, like I’d slapped her.

Admittedly, I wanted to. Didn’t. If for no other reason than the legal repercussions.

“I have every right to be here to support my daughter.”

“You have no right to tear downourdaughter like she’s your competition.”

“You’re being absurd,” she snapped. “She was fine! She knows I was just joking around.”

“She’sten!” Leighton’s razor-edged voice rang down the hallway, and we all turned as she stormed toward us—more warrior than model, even in three-inch heels.

“It’s funny you think you get to weigh in as the help,” Carly purred, saccharine sweet, when Leighton stepped directly into our huddle. Carly batted her lashes, still putting on a show for any lingering stragglers. Leighton, however, didn’t give a shit about pretense. She stepped right into Carly’s space, chin high, shoulders back, glaring down her nose at her.

“You know what’sfunny? You act like some prize—like your kids should be grateful for the scraps you bother to throw their way. But let’s be real, Mattie has been carrying your dead fucking weight her entire life. You show up here and play prima donna mama hoping she’ll love you anyway, or to win favor from the guys, but the moment you feel threatened, you crush her. And for what? To punish Ollie for a mistake he made when he was twenty-fucking-two?”

“Excuse me?” Carly straightened, composure cracking.

“You don’t get to play stupid, you dumb bitch.” Leighton’s vulgarity had both Greyson and me laughing into our hands, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman in red as she stalked forward, looking more likely to swing on Carly than keep talking. “Not after that performance. Not after planting insecurity in a little girl who does everything we ask of her just to make everyone happy. Girlsdieover body image bullshit—and who the hell are you to talk,Cruella? Matilda is ten. And somehow, she’s alreadyten times the womanyou willeverbe.”

Carly’s eyes darted around before landing back on the one person in the room who didn’t care about appearances. Her throat bobbed.

“Spare the lecture, Leighton. You’re just the nanny—for now. You’re not her mother. Now, let the grown-ups talk.”

“No, I’m not her mother. But if I could step into that role, I would in a heartbeat,” Leighton said, her smile sharp and cold as Carly’s face went pale. “Because I’d make damn sure she never had to wonder if she was good enough. That’s what a mother does. She builds her children up. She makes sure they know they can conquer anything.”

I could feel the eyes on us. Was I a little terrified this would end up on a blog or in a tabloid? Sure. But as Carly’s face flushed and she shrank in on herself, I decided the time for propriety had ended. Alice might have to clean this up, calling in favors with the media outlets who owed her—or owed us—but I had a feeling she’d understand.

Should it have been arousing?

Absolutely not.

Was it satisfying? Watching the woman who’d terrorized my life look small for once?

Absolutely.

Carly looked at me like I should step in, but I just chuckled and raised my hands in the universal sign for “you’re on your own.”

“Awe, look at you. Reaching for the big Hart men because, just like everything else in your life, you don’t even have the dignity to stand your own ground.” Leighton shot me a glance before returning her daggers to my ex. When she opened her mouth, the mocking tone had saturated into a baby voice, her lips sticking out as she pouted, “And he just leaves you hanging, after you orchestrated your plans so perfectly.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” Carly hissed, her natural tenor replacing the performative bullshit she’d waltzed in here with.

“Don’t I?” Leighton growled. “Got yourself a baby to lock him down? A ring on your finger? The only thing you were too dense to consider was that Harts don’t settle forbullshit.”

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